Project

More efficient monitoring of the effects on biodiversity in making agriculture more sustainable

The new agricultural vision of the Dutch government, aimed at nature-inclusive and circular agriculture with room for the conservation and restoration of biodiversity, has prompted an expansion of practice-oriented research in fruit cultivation and arable farming, including projects within the KB and BO funding streams. The research focuses on new technical innovations as well as on potential measures for sustainability in the research locations Randwijk and Lelystad and on organic and conventional farms.

The BO programme Knowledge Impulse Green Crop Protection, for example, is specifically aimed at improving plant health, measures to make plant protection product use more sustainable and reduction of the dependence on its use. In one case study of this programme, an integral redesign of the apple cultivation system  is being tested at the research location Randwijk in comparison to a common reference plot. Conservation and restoration of biodiversity (species richness) is one of the key objectives in this project and numerous other research projects,  following the recent launch of the Delta Plan on Biodiversity Restoration and the publication of the conclusions of the IPBES report on the rapid decline in diversity worldwide. Functional, but also total, biodiversity in cultivation plots is therefore an increasingly important critical performance indicator (KPI). Often the emphasis is on diversity among above-ground arthropods (insects and other arthropods).

However, species recognition of above-ground arthropods is very time-consuming and reserved for a select group of specialists. In the traditional approach collected samples are first separated into spiders, bees and mites, after which specimens are delivered per group to specialized taxonomists who view and identify each individual under the binocular or microscope. In many cases, this is currently not feasible within the available project budgets, so that the effects on species diversity often cannot be properly investigated. A scientifically reliable and - at the same time - time and cost efficient monitoring method is urgently needed.

New developments in the field of DNA analysis offer a promising alternative. Diversity determinations based on so-called DNA metabarcoding result in qualitative differences between treatments that correspond to the conventional method. This potentially allows the same interpretation in a much more cost and time efficient way.

In this project we focus on the application of DNA metabarcoding in Dutch agriculture. In 2019 the case study in apple orchards served  as the first pilot, which was augmented in 2020 with arthropod samples from experimental arable fields with row (inter)cropping and perennial pastures. Results from such pilots lay the foundation for broad application in other (agricultural) systems in the Netherlands and abroad, where measuring biodiversity is an important part of the research.

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